Chapter 21: Victory Ceremony Tournament (3)

The reunion with Gilbert was truly dramatic.

For one thing, the place he appeared wasn’t the gate of the training ground.

“Kaiiiiiiill-!!!”

Boom!

I had no idea what was so urgent, but Gilbert leaped right over the gate and landed in front of me.

The landing was so forceful that the road visibly sank.

And the guard who witnessed the scene shouted with a look of despair.

“No, not the road again!”

From his expression, it seemed that the responsibility for the road maintenance in this area also fell to the guards.

I silently offered my condolences to him as I looked up at Gilbert, who was glaring at me as if he were about to scold me.

Despite the time that had passed since I last saw him, nothing had changed.

His snow-white hair was still combed back, and his mustache still had its sharp, W shape.

It was the kind of mustache commonly referred to as the Kaiser mustache.

But more noticeable than those features was something else entirely—his body, which resembled that of a bear more than a human.

I’m not speaking figuratively, his body size was actually similar to that of a bear.

When I first saw him, I was so shocked I thought he was a different species.

‘Still ridiculously huge.’

I never considered myself short, but I can barely touch his shoulder.

And it wasn’t just that he was big.

His shirtless body revealed that it was packed entirely with muscle.

Muscles so huge they could make bodybuilders look small!

He approached me with those massive muscles bulging.

“Kai!! Have you finally come to accept your fate as a knight?!!!”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do it anymore, even if I wanted to.”

“What do you mean by that!! Who dares speak such nonsense?!!!”

“It’s not what anyone else said, it’s because of this.”

“Hmm?!”

I tapped my prosthetic leg with my finger.

Gilbert’s massive caterpillar-like eyebrows twitched greatly, and then he shouted.

“Then what is it that you can’t do?!!!”

“Well, Gilbert, I lost my leg! That’s why I had to retire from being an adventurer!”

“One leg missing doesn’t mean you’re out of your knightly fate!! Sir Rowen!!!”

At Gilbert’s cry, a knight slid smoothly through the open gate.

He seemed to have grown used to the eccentricities of the commander and bowed with an indifferent expression.

“Yes.”

“Bring the knight’s induction papers at once!!!”

“Commander, before that, your clothes.”

“Oh no!! I forgot I was training when I came out!! Also, bring me a written apology for violating the dress code!!!”

“I’ve already brought it.”

“Good job!!!”

Knight Commander Gilbert quickly put on his clothes and wrote “Reason: Excitement” in large letters on the apology form before handing it to Sir Rowen.

After receiving the form, Sir Rowen slid back inside the gate.

Seizing the opportunity, I brought up my business.

“Anyway, the reason I came to see you today is for another matter.”

“What?!! What other reason could there be?!!!”

“The tournament that’s coming up. Have you heard how it’s going to unfold?”

“The tournament is always the same!! The strong trample the weak and bring honor to themselves!! I don’t have time to watch such childish games!!!”

“This time, adventurers will be participating.”

“What?!”

Gilbert flexed his muscles and laughed loudly at my words.

“Kai!! Have you come to challenge me in the tournament? How interesting!!!”

“Didn’t you hear that I’ve retired from adventuring?”

“Then, the only choice left is to become a knight and join the tournament!!!”

“Why does this conversation always lead back to joining the knight order?”

“You were born under the star of a knight, Kai!! Accept your fate!!!”

“This is ridiculous.”

At this rate, the conversation would never end.

I had to forcefully steer it toward the point.

I pushed Victoria, who had been staring at Gilbert with a blank expression, forward.

“She’s the one participating in the tournament, not me.”

“Hmm?! Who is this woman?!!”

“[Moonlight Sword] Victoria. She is my apprentice.”

I tapped Victoria on the shoulder, and she snapped back to attention and shouted.

“I’m Victoria! I’m learning from Master Kai!”

“Apprentice!! She’s an apprentice!!! Then did you teach her ‘that’ too?!!!”

“I didn’t teach her, but she can use it.”

“What?!! Let’s see it immediately!!”

“Before that, may I ask you a favor?”

“What is it?!!”

“Please have a duel with Victoria, using a sword. A proper duel.”

Without hesitation, Gilbert agreed to my request.

“Fine!! Come on in!! We can’t have a duel in the street after all!!!”

Gilbert shouted, trying to usher us inside.

However, Sir Rowen, who had approached unnoticed, blocked him with a document.

“Commander, you need to fill out an entry permit first.”

“Ah!! Almost made a mistake again!! Well done!!!”

Gilbert wrote “Reason: Knight Order Inductee Notice” in large letters on the document and led us inside.

I glanced at the document and felt a slight regret.

“Should I have looked for another way?”

But since we had already come this far, there was no turning back.

I sighed, pondering how to get out of this situation.

When we arrived at the training grounds, Gilbert dismissed the surrounding knights and put on his armor.

Fully armored, he turned to Victoria and asked,

“You said you can use ‘that’ technique from Kai, right? Let’s see it!”

“Is it okay to use it?!”

“Yes. That’s why I brought you here.”

“Alright! Then I’ll use it!”

Victoria drew her sword and unleashed the sword energy.

With the unique vibrating sound I had heard before, a bright flash of sword light shot out.

Gilbert observed the sword energy with a captivated expression, as if he were being drawn into the light.

“Oooh!! It really works!! But it’s strangely different from Kai’s!”

“Yes! There’s something different about it!”

“Do you understand what the difference is?!!!”

“I don’t know!”

“I don’t know either!! Kai!! Do you understand?!!!”

Why would he ask as if he was going to explain the difference and then throw the question back at me?

I was baffled, but I decided to explain anyway.

“I can’t say for sure, but it seems that the light emitted by Victoria’s sword energy is a byproduct of the process of releasing the energy. It’s not light, but another kind of force.”

“Hmm!!”

“But my sword energy… the light itself is the sword energy. That’s what I’ve figured out.”

“Ughhh!!”

“…Did you understand?”

“I don’t know!!”

Then why ask me…

But perhaps his experience as a seasoned knight hadn’t gone anywhere, as Gilbert quickly grasped the key point.

“So, the dangerous part isn’t the light itself, then!”

“That’s right.”

“Then I understand everything I need to know!! Now, let’s see what you’ve got!!!”

“I’m coming!”

With those words, Victoria charged at Gilbert, shooting forward like an arrow.

It was an honest sword strike without any feints.

It was an attack that maximized the destructive power and speed of the sword energy.

Gilbert, seeing this, burst into laughter.

“Hahaha!! It’s like watching young Kai again!!”

With those words, Gilbert changed his stance.

Just by changing his stance, he deflected Victoria’s sword strike off his armor, and in the split second that her stance faltered, he brought his sword to her neck.

It was a clean, seamless counterattack, one that combined both offense and defense!

Victoria, caught in the move, blinked in confusion, not realizing what had just happened.

“What is this…?!”

“Now, again!”

At Gilbert’s command, Victoria jumped back, measuring the distance.

Perhaps because her first attack had failed so miserably, she concentrated, carefully gauging the distance and shifting between subtle gaps to provoke Gilbert’s attack.

“She’s trying to counterattack since her first attack didn’t work.”

The judgment wasn’t bad, but in a knight’s swordsmanship, defense is not the only option.

Having read Victoria’s thoughts just like I did, Gilbert grinned and moved from his stance.

“Let’s see how you handle defense!!”

Gilbert rushed forward with his sword hand behind him, and his empty hand stretched out ahead.

Victoria carefully measured the distance, and when it seemed impossible to retreat, she readied her sword—

Clang!

“?!”

“Where did that quickness from earlier go?!!!”

As she swung her sword, her stance was broken by a strike from Gilbert’s sword, which suddenly extended and hit her.

Her balance was lost, and his sword was once again aimed at her neck.

“Now, again!”

The sparring, which had also served as a lesson, continued, and Victoria, unable to land a single successful attack, finally ended the duel.

I approached her and asked, “Victoria, are you okay?”

Victoria, seemingly stunned by the defeat, stared blankly into the air.

As I tried to speak to her again, Gilbert intervened.

“Enough. Victoria is now processing her realization.”

“What do you think? Was it worth facing a knight?”

He snorted at my question.

“You bring in a monster and then ask me that?”

“Calling her a monster is a bit harsh.”

“Isn’t a person who copies after just seeing a technique a monster? What would you call them?”

“Well, an unparalleled genius?”

“That’s too much. Maybe if it’s for the master, but not for her.”

“That’s not what I—”

Anyway, this person, and everyone else, always overestimates me.

Gilbert let out a hearty laugh, then looked at me and asked,

“So, whose idea was it?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“The tournament. You’re not planning to enter with even your own disciples, are you? Could it be the third princess?”

At his question, my expression stiffened.

The third princess, in other words, Princess Martina.

No one knew about my personal connection with her—

When I looked at him, Gilbert, with the face of a knight rather than the jovial old man, asked me again.

“I’d like an answer. [Red Moon Sword]. No, [Artraus’s Phantom].”